How to Cleanup Spotify Application Junk in Windows?

Spotify is one of the best audio streaming platforms available nowadays.

It has proved to be highly beneficial to avid music lovers and they can now be glued up endlessly to the Spotify app and listen to their favorite songs without worrying about any issues.

However, there is a teeny tiny twist here. The local Spotify folder ends up gathering a huge trove of junk data whenever it is used. Users have even reported about the Spotify folder going on to be as voluminous as 10 GB in size, which is quite shocking as it is only there for saving song cache.

Cleaning up Spotify junk might well be quite of an achievement if you set out to do so manually. However, were you to make use of a smart method to delete the junk, that would be quite a walk in the park.

Delete the Spotify Junk in Windows

ST Cleaner is distributed with verifiable digital signatures

We’ve gathered an array of solutions that can be helpful in this scenario. Let’s briefly touch each one of them.

 

Change Spotify Storage Space

Exit the Spotify app and then navigate to: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Spotify\Data\ (this is the folder where all data related to Spotify is stored).

Simply delete the entire content of this folder. Next, go to: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Spotify\prefs\

Edit this file with Notepad and you will spot the storage.size option.

If it isn’t available, manually type the following string in the file:

storage.size=*desired amount of megabytes*

Example: storage.size=1280

Save the file and restart Spotify. The cache content must have been cleaned out now.

 

Deny Write Permission to Spotify

You can also opt to deny the write permission to Spotify. This will result in restricting it from adding more cache to the software. The Spotify cache folder is located at:
C:\Users\%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Spotify\Data\

  1. Navigate to the above-mentioned location, right-click the Data folder and select Properties.
  2. Click the Security tab.
  3. Now select Edit.
  4. In the next window, select your username and then select the Deny checkbox for Write. Follow this instruction exactly as described or you could end up severely harming Spotify’s working.
  5. Click OK | OK.

 

Adjust Spotify’s Cache Size

You can also adjust the cache size for Spotify from within the software. Here is how to do it.

  1. Launch Spotify and go to Edit | Preferences.
  2. Scroll down to Cache and simply edit it as per your requirements.

 

Perform a Clean Reinstall of Spotify

First of all, uninstall Spotify and then delete its storage folder from:
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Spotify\

Restart your computer and then simply reinstall Spotify.

 

Delete local-files.bnk

Another way to go about this issue is to locate the file named as local-files.bnk. This file is located at:
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Spotify\Users\

Now search for the folder that is named similar to 123456-user. The actual folder name will contain a sequence of numbers (a different one most probably) followed by your username. Open that folder, locate local-files.bnk inside it and delete it.

 

Opt for Auto-update to reduce Cache Size

Spotify doesn’t updates itself automatically, which tremendously increases its cache size. If you want to opt for auto-update, simply delete the file named local-files-desktop.spa, which can be found at:

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Spotify\Apps\

 

Using ST Cleaner to Sweep Clean Spotify Junk in Windows

The best automated method to sweep away all the Spotify junk swiftly and safely is ST Cleaner.

This program lets you clean up junk files from all nooks and corners of the system and is divided into 4 broad categories for your ease. They are System Cache, Software Junk, Web Junk and Social and Multimedia.

Download and install the software. Now launch it and click Scan. Once the scan is over, it will provide all the hard disk space you stand to gain by wiping off the junk. Click Clean Now to launch the cleanup process.

ST Cleaner showing scan results
ST Cleaner showing scan results

Raza Ali Kazmi works as an editor and technology content writer at Sorcim Technologies (Pvt) Ltd. He loves to pen down articles on a wide array of technology related topics and has also been diligently testing software solutions on Windows & Mac platforms.